Be Quiet! Pure Base 600 Review

The Pure Base 600 takes up the reigns as Be Quiet!'s entry level chassis, with the £75 MSRP slotting it in just beneath the Silent Base 600 in the company's lineup. It's available only in pure black or black with silver highlights (no orange this time around), and looks like a fairly typical mid-tower case from the outside with its clean, flat panels. It's designed to offer both low noise and decent cooling performance through a flexible, modular design, all while retaining good value for money – that's quite the challenge Be Quiet! has set itself; let's see how it's gone about meeting it.

Click to enlarge

Build quality is middle of the road, although this isn't really a criticism when you consider the price. It's solid enough for what it costs, using steel for the side panels and plastic for the front panel and the central removable roof section.

It's quite rare to see new cases with optical drive bays these days, but the Pure Base 600 sticks to its guns and gives you two, guarded by bay covers that neatly blend in with the otherwise solid front panel.

Click to enlarge

The I/O ports are mounted to the front panel, angled so as to provide easy access regardless of whether the case is positioned on the floor or your desk. The selection of ports is the standard duo of USB 3.0 headers and pair of audio jacks, but you also get a three-step fan controller (5V, 9V, and 12V). We're always happy to see one of these on cases designed for low noise, as it gives users an easy means of keeping things as quiet as possible during idle/low load periods without having to suffocate components when things get a bit toastier.

As you can see, the chassis is pretty well sealed against the elements, with no ventilation built in to the sides or roof – one means of reducing noise but likely restrictive when it comes to airflow. Two vertical mesh strips on the front panel make up the only real air intake area, and these are angled in a way that's said to refract sound that emanates from inside. They're also backed by dust filtering material, but this isn't independently removable; you have to take off both side panels before you can get a good enough grip on the front panel to yank it off.

Click to enlarge

The case ships with a pair of the company's Pure Wings 2 fans – one 140mm front intake and one 120mm rear exhaust. There are enough mounting points in the front and roof, however, for up to six fans overall. If you're wondering why you'd bother installing fans beneath a sealed roof, Be Quiet! has actually made the central portion modular: You can raise it by a few cm, giving air a path out of roof, or even remove it completely for maximum ventilation. This latter option isn't recommended, however, since no dust filter is supplied and you'd be leaving your hardware very open to the elements. The design of this mechanism is also truly terrible, requiring you to take off the side panel and fiddle around with eight clips on the inside. A much better means of achieving the same thing is seen in the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1, where a simple latch on the side slides forward and raises the section automatically. Be Quiet! prides itself on quality German design, so it's tough to see how this was considered good enough.

A quick look at the bottom reveals a set of rubber feet – it's good to see Be Quiet! hasn't cheaped out here, as rubber is a good material for absorbing noise and vibrations, complementing the case's low-noise principles. There's also a slide-out dust filter. This could be better designed, as the handle is a little difficult to reach and clearance isn't especially high, but we're still happy it's included and isn't just a thin, fiddly sheet of material.